Otter.ai

Otter.ai is a Los Altos, California-based technology company that develops speech to text transcription applications using artificial intelligence and machine learning. Its software, called Otter, shows captions for live speakers, and generates written transcriptions of the speeches.[1]

This article is about the transcription software company. For other uses, see otter (disambiguation).
Otter.ai
Private
IndustryTranscription software
PredecessorAISense
Founded2016
FoundersSam Liang, Yun Fu
HeadquartersLos Altos, California, United States
Key people
Sam Liang, CEO
ProductsOtter transcription software for meeting notes
Websiteotter.ai

History

Otter.ai was founded as AISense in 2016 by Sam Liang and Yun Fu, two computer science engineers with a long history of working with artificial intelligence.[2][3] The idea for the company came to Liang due to difficulties remembering what was said in the many meetings he attended, and the challenge of sharing meeting information with others.[4] Liang became the company's CEO, and Fu became VP of Engineering.

In November 2017, the company announced a Series A funding round of $10M, its first venture capital investment.[5]

In January 2018, the company announced a partnership with Zoom Video Communications to transcribe video meetings after they are held.[6] In March, the company debuted its first Otter speech translation app at Mobile World Congress.[6] It was available for free for Google's Android and Apple's mobile products.[1] In October, the company launched Otter for Education, a note taking tool for college students.[7]

In March 2019, the company launched Otter for Teams, a transcription and storage product for enterprises.[8]

In January 2020, now doing business as Otter.ai, the company announced another $10M funding round, led by Japanese mobile phone operator NTT Docomo’s Docomo Ventures.[9] In April, the company announced it was offering Live Notes for Zoom calls.[10]

Technology

To develop its speech transcription technology, the company reportedly combined deep machine learning using millions of hours of audio recordings, which were analyzed with thousands of cloud-based computers to train the software and improve the translation capabilities. The company reports that it uses proprietary algorithms to scour the web for these usable audio segments.[11] By capturing and analyzing large amounts of speech, neural network programs can recognize speech with up to 95% accuracy.[12]

Products

Otter.ai offers a variety of Otter-branded services for speech transcription, based on its advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Products include:

  • Otter Live Meeting Notes - the company's flagship product, available in a free or premium version, offering extra capabilities[13]
  • Otter for Teams - a version of the company's transcription tool designed for companies, which includes Live Video Meeting Notes for real time transcription[8][14]
  • Otter for Education - designed to assist students with note taking, by recording and transcribing lectures, recording who is talking and synchronizing the audio with the transcription[7]
  • Otter Live Notes for Zoom - a tool which allows participants on a Zoom call to view the transcript in real time[10]

Reception

Digital media website Mashable and technology publication Fast Company named Otter one of the best apps of 2018.[15][16] In June 2019, Otter received a positive review from Forbes.[4]

In March 2018, technology news site ZDNet reported concerns about Otter's privacy policy, and in response the company updated the policy to clarify that it would only allow access to customer's transcriptions through lawful requests.[17]

References
  1. Solsman, Joan E. (2018-03-03). "To make transcripts is to hate transcripts, but mobile app Otter does it free". CNET. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  2. "Otter for Teams brings collaborative voice transcription to enterprises". Venturebeat. 2019-03-12. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  3. "Otter.ai CEO on the Zoom add-on you probably need". IDG Connect. 2020-05-18. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  4. Su, Jean Baptiste (2019-06-19). "CEO Tech Talk: How Otter.ai Uses Artificial Intelligence To Automatically Transcribe Speech To Text". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-07-02.
  5. "Series A - Otter.ai". Crunchbase. 2017-11-20. Retrieved 2020-07-02.
  6. Hiner, Jason (2018-03-02). "AI breakthrough: Otter.ai app can transcribe your meetings in real time, for free". ZDNet. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  7. "AISense's Otter for Education brings voice transcription to colleges". Venturebeat. 2018-10-31. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  8. "Transcription service Otter launches enterprise app for teams". ZDNET. 2019-03-12. Retrieved 2020-07-02.
  9. "Otter.ai raises $10 million for AI transcription tool". Venturebeat. 2020-01-23. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  10. "Otter.ai's newest feature offers live, interactive transcripts of your Zoom meetings". Techcrunch. 2020-01-23. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  11. Clarke, Laurie (2019-03-01). "Could Otter.ai's ambitions in voice extend beyond AI transcriptions?". Techworld. Retrieved 2020-07-02.
  12. "From Your Mouth to Your Screen, Transcribing Takes the Next Step". NY Times. 2020-06-13. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  13. "There's No Perfect Transcription App, But Otter Is Getting There". Fast Company. 2018-05-10. Retrieved 2020-07-02.
  14. "Zoom now lets you transcribe meetings in real time". TechRadar. 2020-05-05. Retrieved 2020-07-02.
  15. "The best apps of 2018". Mashable. 2018-12-15. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  16. "The 25 best new apps of 2018". Fast Company. 2018-12-20. Retrieved 2020-07-02.
  17. Whittaker, Zack (2018-03-06). "Otter, a popular new transcription app, raises privacy red flags". ZDNet. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
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